Advances in computer and wireless networking, multimedia coding, and higher bandwidth communication links are creating many new ways to distribute and enjoy multimedia content, such as music and movies. Coding formats for audio like MPEG 1 Layer 3 (MP3) have already caused significant changes in music delivery to consumers. Despite the advances in technology, content distributors and broadcasters still need to address how to effectively promote and sell content.
This disclosure describes systems and processes for linking audio and other multimedia data objects with metadata and actions via a communication network, e.g., computer, broadcast, wireless, etc. Media objects are transformed into active, connected objects via identifiers embedded into them or their containers. These identifiers can be embedded by the owner or distributor of the media object, or automatically created from the media object. In the context of a user's playback experience, a decoding process extracts the identifier from a media object and possibly additional context information and forwards it to a server. The server, in turn, maps the identifier to an action, such as returning metadata, re-directing the request to one or more other servers, requesting information from another server to identify the media object, etc. If the identifier has no defined action, the server can respond with an option for the user to buy the link and control the resulting action for all objects with the current identifier. The linking process applies to broadcast objects as well as objects transmitted over networks in streaming and compressed file formats.
One embodiment includes a method having: receiving an image or video from a handheld device; computing attributes of the image or video, said act of computing operates on data representing picture elements of the image or video, the attributes are to be used to identify the image or video; using computed attributes of the image or video to identify the image or video, or to identify metadata associated with the image or video in a network resource; retrieving metadata associated with the image or video in the network resource; and providing the metadata to the handheld device.
Another embodiment includes a method having: receiving data corresponding to an image or video from a handheld device, the data representing picture elements of the image or picture elements of the video; computing attributes of the data using a processor, said act of computing controls the processor to operate on the data, the attributes are to be used to identify the image or video; using computed attributes of the image or video to identify the image or video or to identify metadata associated with the image or video in a network resource; obtaining metadata associated with the image or video in the network resource; and providing the metadata to the handheld device.
Yet another embodiment includes a method reciting: obtaining data corresponding to media content from a handheld device, the data representing picture elements of an image or video or representing audible portions of an audio signal; computing attributes of the data using a processor, said act of computing utilizes the processor to operate on the data; using computed attributes of the data to identify the media content or to identify metadata associated with the media content; obtaining metadata associated with the media content; and providing the metadata to the handheld device from a network resource.
Still another embodiment includes a system comprising: a communications channel to obtain data corresponding to an media content from a handheld device, the data representing picture elements of an image or video or representing audible portions of an audio signal; a processor to: i) compute attributes of the data; ii) using at least computed attributes of the media content, identify the media content or identify metadata associated with the media content; iii) obtain metadata associated with the media content in the network resource; and iv) control communication of the metadata to the handheld device from a network resource.
Another embodiment includes a system having: a communications channel to receive information from a handheld device, the information having been derived from data representing picture elements of an image or video, the information to be used at least to identify the image or video, the information having been steganographically hidden in the data representing picture elements of the image or video; a processor to: i) identify the image or video, or to identify metadata associated with the image or video, using the information; ii) obtain metadata associated with the image or video; and iii) control communication of the metadata to the handheld device.
Further features will become apparent with reference to the following detailed description and accompanying drawings.